(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- The Biden Administration is moving so quickly to bug out of Afghanistan, the haste of the US departure is putting the lives of those Afghans who worked with us at grave risk. Thousands of Afghans who worked alongside the US military will no doubt face deadly reprisals once their US allies are no longer there to protect them.
So last week, in order to expedite the process of getting these Afghans out of the country, the House voted 366 to 46 to fast track special visas to the US by waiving the required medical exam in their home country and instead permitting them to receive the medical exam after they arrive in the US.
This one move will shave about a month off the usual time it takes to apply for and receive a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).
Congressman Jason Crow (D-CO), a former Army Ranger, sponsored the bill. He believes shortening the time by a month will save the lives of many of those Afghans he and other US servicemen and women depended on in Afghanistan.
The Afghans who receive this expedited SIV will have thirty days to undergo the medical examination once they are stateside. This 30-day provision was added by Republican members who were concerned that waiving the medical exam could lead to the spread of disease.
All told, there are more than 18,000 Afghans plus their families who are waiting to obtain the Special Immigrant Visa made available to Afghans facing reprisals by the Taliban and other jihadist groups due to their work with the US. They include interpreters, drivers, engineers, security guards, embassy employees, contractors and others who aided the US in its nearly 20 year war.
Co-sponsor Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) believes that if the US doesn’t do everything in its power to protect these allies, “it’ll be a black eye on the United States.”
In late June, the Biden Administration said that, before the military is out of Afghanistan, the US would evacuate these Afghan allies and their families to third countries until their SIVs are processed.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a “mass evacuation” of these Afghans, not to a third country, but to the US territory of Guam to await their SIVs.
The Biden Administration has faced harsh criticism over its haste in leaving the war-torn country. Some experts have accused the President of failing to take into account the grave risk these Afghan allies will face in his haste to get the US out.
Biden’s rush is the only reason the US is now considering a mass evacuation plan for these Afghan allies. Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker told a Senate panel last week that Biden’s failure to consider the fate of these Afghans sooner left mass evacuation the only possible option on the table.
Crocker believes that a mass evacuation of Afghan allies will spark a panic throughout the population of Afghanistan and within its government and security forces as well.
